Sleep
by Another Writer Who Loves
Summary: Dean can't sleep with Michael pounding in his head.


At this point Dean wasn't even trying to fall asleep, resigning himself to another sleepless night staring up at the ceiling instead.

The pounding in his head continued almost in a rhythm, only broken when he could hear Michaels muffled screaming. He regretted, not for the first time, that his mind prison had taken place in a bar and wished that it had been, in lets say, a pillow factory. Not much noise can be done with pillows.

He played with the idea of going to the kitchen and getting something to drink, maybe watch something on his laptop to try to pass the time. Not like he was going to go to sleep at any point tonight. Or any other night.

He could slightly make out the sound of someone padding in the hallway and he frowned, turning his head to glance at the time. It was the middle of the night, who the hell could still be up?

The footsteps got a bit louder, still quiet however, and they seemed to get closer. His room wasn't on the way to anything important, like the kitchen or the library or the mainroom, before his door suddenly opened.

Blinking in surprise he sat up, staring at his brother who looked back at him. Sam didn't look surprised that Dean was awake in the slightest.

"Hey, you alright?" Dean asked, sitting up a bit more comfortably to look at his brother, noting the pillow that was under Sams arm.

In an answer Sam came into the room, reaching out to lightly push Dean a bit more to the side which he allowed. Sam placed his pillow on the bed and then turned to the nightstand to plug his phone charger and phone there.

Then Sam laid down on the bed next to him, staring at his brother.

"You're not sleeping." Sam stated. "You haven't been sleeping."

Dean shrugged, trying to stay nonchalant. "Sometimes hunting makes it hard to sleep." he said.

Sam snorted and moved onto his side, bringing his arm up and resting his head on his hand, elbow on the bed. "No, it's hard to sleep because you have Michael banging in your head."

Dean wanted to protest, wanted to say that he was fine, wanted to say that he was handling it.

But maybe it was the quiet of the night, the way his brother was looking at him. Maybe it was something in the air that made him softer and his pure exhaustion that made him not able to say anything else.

Dean sighed and laid back down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling again. "Yeah." he said softly.

Sam moved closer to him, Dean turned his head to look at his brother who stared down at him. "Why won't you tell me this?"

"Don't want you to worry." Dean told him. "I can handle it, a few sleepless nights aren't going to-" he hesitated and then sighed. "Okay fine, it's getting harder."

Sam nodded, reaching for his brothers hand and laying down. He entwined their fingers together gently. "Dean I'm here for you, I want to help you." he said. "But I can't if you're not going to let me."

"It's my job to take care of you, not you take care of me." Dean told him.

"You're my brother, I want to take care of you." Sam fired back. "Dean, you're everything to me, of course I want to help you in every way."

Whatever Dean was about to say back to his brother he flinched hard when the pounding escalated for a moment, a roar screaming filling his ears.

The sounds faded for a moment however when he felt his brothers arms wrap around him, bringing him in close.

Slowly Dean opened his eyes, at level with Sams chest. His brothers arms were wrapped around him completely, one hand in Deans hair.

"I know its hard, and I know how loudly he's screaming." Sam murmured to him. "And you're amazing in doing this, but you can lean on me for support, its fine." Dean could feel Sam brushing his lips against the top of his head. "I'm here for you Dean."

Slowly Dean's hands came up, gripping at Sam tightly. He pressed closer to Sam and just held onto him, letting his brother hold him as they entwined their legs together as well.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold onto him Sammy." Dean whispered. "I can feel him...he's getting stronger and it's getting harder to keep him back."

Sam rubbed at Deans back as best as he could. "Then I guess it's time for us to go into the Ma'lak Box." he said.

Dean flinched and moved back enough to look at his brother. "That's not funny Sam."

Sam stared down at him. "I'm not laughing." he told him. "I made you a promise Dean and I intend on keeping it."

"You are not going to-" Dean said before being interrupted by Sam bringing him in closer.

"The Ma'lak Box is still hidden and we won't have the materials to make another one, you're not going to get out of this and I'm not going to leave you." Sam told him, holding Dean to his chest. "No arguments."

Dean let out a small breath, not wanting to argue. He was feeling too drained and too tired and he just wanted to sleep.

"This isn't over." Dean told him, feeling his body slowly start to relax from Sams embrace and warmth. "We're still going to talk about this."

He felt Sam chuckle more than he heard him, his hand still rubbing at Deans back. "Sure." he said softly.

Slowly the pounding faded in his head, not entirely, he could still hear it, but it wasn't as loud. He focused on his brother and breathed out slowly, relaxing and slowly falling asleep.

**I do not own Supernatural. **

**66/365**

**I do take requests so if you have requests you can send them to me.**

**If you're curious as to what Sam meant about the Ma'lak Box and both of them going into it you can read my oneshot Locked Together but essentially, Sam vowed to Dean that they were both going to go into the Ma'lak Box together.**


End file.
